


I got my hopes up again, oh no, not again

by keithsjuicebox



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 05:30:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13140060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keithsjuicebox/pseuds/keithsjuicebox
Summary: Keith is loosing faith in his Soul Mark until he runs into Lance at a coffee shop in the middle of the night...





	1. A Neon OPEN Sign

**Author's Note:**

> for Joey @postscratch on tumblr for the antisvldexchange! Happy Holidays! Also enjoy your kinda cameo I guess

Keith hated his Soul Mark. Everyone else on the planet had a meaningful tattoo on their forearm giving them a clue about their soulmate. Some people were born with a graphic T-shirt or a street sign. Others had something more vague like gnarled tree or a necklace, but at least they might recognise that when they saw it, even if they didn’t realize it until afterwards.  
  
Keith’s was meaningless. It was just a basic neon _OPEN _sign. There were thousands of those all over the world. When he was younger, his heart would beat a little faster every time he saw one flickering in the window of a convenience store or a family owned restaurant. Now he hardly batted an eye.__  
  
Anyways, he didn’t have time to worry about soulmates. He had to focus on school now for once. It wasn’t that flight school at the Garrison was hard for him or anything. Keith just struggled to keep himself out of principal’s office. Sure, he had borrowed a speeder and a fighter plane without permission more than a few times, but it was all for practice. They should be happy that Keith was putting effort into something, unlike his academic classes.  
  
Spring break was almost over, and Iverson had told him to “clear his head” before he came back to class. Keith didn’t know how to do that, especially with the recent Kerberos debacle. He had looked up to Professor Takashi and it seemed almost… unreal that he and his crew could be gone.  
  
It was almost midnight when Keith decided to make a coffee run. Time over break felt as unreal as the Kerberos mission, so he had been staying up ridiculously late researching and messing around on his speeder in the desert. As he breezed into town and parked his speeder outside the coffee shop, Keith shivered. The desert could get chilly at night, so he always brought a light jacket.  
  
As he threw it on, he watched the neon words _Joey’s Jo_ cough and die out. Now the only light came from the _OPEN_ sign and the stars. Keith snickered. He felt like he was being teased again, like his friends in middle school used to. They’d point and scream at every sign, urging Keith to go into the store. When he would pass up the opportunity, they’d pretend he had snubbed a celebrity. Yet he still felt that a part of his heart had sprinted in all those stores and met the boy of his dreams.  
  
Keith crossed his arms to fight the cold and leaned on the door. It swung slowly to reveal a dimly lit, nearly empty shop.  
  
“Sorry, we’re about close!” The barista called from the counter. He was handing a boy a frappe that looked to be about half whipped cream.  
  
Keith opened his mouth to beg a little, but saw the sweat that had permeated the orange band on the barista’s forehead. He decided not to press. The kid probably had a long day. “Oh, okay.”  
  
He turned to leave, but the barista called out. “Wait! You come here a lot at this time right? You just like black coffee, and I was gonna dump the rest of this out, so you can have it.” He waved a pot half enthusiastically.  
  
“Uh, yeah, thanks.” Keith was surprised the barista had remembered him. He didn’t come here that often, did he? Thinking back on it, maybe Keith did have a history of unusual coffee runs.  
  
“No problem! I’ll grab you a cup.”  
  
The whipped cream boy hadn’t left after getting his drink. He stood near the corner of the shop, sipping his sugary concoction and checking Instagram. Keith couldn’t exactly make out his face by the light of the neon sign, but he definitely looked familiar. He squinted in the din, but couldn’t place him.  
  
The barista returned with his coffee and Keith tipped him well. He was about to leave again when the other boy spoke.  
  
“Hey, do you go to the Garrison?” It finally clicked for Keith.  
  
“Yeah. You’re a cargo pilot, right?” He probably had seen this kid in class or just around, but Keith couldn’t produce his name.  
  
“Well, I’m gonna get moved up to fighter class soon.”  
  
A smile pulled at the corner of Keith’s lips. This boy was maybe like, ten percent cute. Maybe more. Keith rolled his eyes internally. He didn’t even know this kid and it was too dark to even see his face all the way. But he did look good in the red glow of the neon lights.  
  
“And Hunk here’s an engineer.” The barista had rounded the counter and waved at being mentioned.  
  
“Oh man, I forgot to turn the back lights off!” Hunk exhaled and disappeared again.  
  
Keith just stood there with this cargo pilot boy. He didn’t know what to say or do. For some reason he felt like walking out of the coffee shop now would be rude. The kid was just sitting there slurping his frappe with a big grin on his face, looking at Keith.  
  
“What?” He questioned, trying to take this sudden tension away.  
  
The cargo pilot laughed. He apparently remembered Keith better than Keith remembered him. Lance guessed that was fair. He was just a cargo pilot… for now. In contrast, Keith was the flying ace that everyone talked trash about because they were jealous. The poor guy didn’t have any friends. The least a lowly cargo pilot could do was talk to him.  
  
“Nothing. I don’t know. I was just thinking, I’m not sure if I dig your mullet itself. It’s definitely a risk. But it definitely works with that funky jacket.”  
  
Keith opened his mouth and grabbed a few strands of hair at the back of his neck, but didn’t form any words. Was that... almost a compliment?  
  
Hunk interrupted his thoughts as he ushered them out of the shop so he could close up. Keith took the opportunity to hop onto his speeder and get out of here. His brain hurt. He’d been teased for wearing this dumb jacket and growing his hair out for years. He practically kept them as they were out of spite. Who is this boy to come up and compliment him?  
  
The speeder’s engine purred as it warmed up. Keith turned it around, but paused before leaving.  
  
“Hey, uh, what’s your name?” He called to the cargo pilot.  
  
The kid rolled his shoulders and smirked. “The name’s Lance.” His introduction was accompanied with a casual finger gun.  
  
“Nice to meet you, Lance.” Keith felt his hand form a finger gun back at Lance. He looked down at it, wondering what the hell was coming over him and transformed the action into a reach for his hair. That was another reason why he kept it long. It was great to play with when he was nervous.  
  
Lance leaned back on the window of the coffee shop as Hunk finished closing it up. The _OPEN_ sign was like a halo around his head, obscuring his face with the blues and reds. Keith revved his speeder as Lance waved goodbye, flashing a small tattoo of a purple sword on his wrist.  
  
“C’mon Hunk. Let’s get outta here. I’m freezing!” Lance’s teeth chattered a little.  
  
“Maybe you shouldn’t get iced coffee when it’s cold then,” Hunk retorted.  
  
“I see your point buddy, but…” Lance took a deep breath. “The weather will not defeat me!”  
  
“Maybe you just need a funky jacket and long hair to stay warm,” Keith joked and sped away. He looked back and watched as the neon sign behind Lance’s head went out.  
  
It felt like a bigger part of his heart was left behind at this _OPEN_ sign than any other. Keith laughed, and then it hit him. He slammed on the breaks. Could this have been… it? In the dark, all alone, Keith panted and ran through the whole conversation again. He had seen Lance’s tattoo, and there certainly wasn’t anything screaming “purple sword” at the coffee shop. The _OPEN_ sign was probably just a coincidence. After all, there were thousands of those all over the world…


	2. A Purple Sword

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so now imagine all of seasons 1-4 happens in here and Keith just almost sacrificed himself...

Keith stood with his arms crossed in the corner of the rec room on the castle ship. He was still shaking. Two hours ago he was about to sacrifice himself for Voltron and the future of the universe, but he had been robbed of the chance by none other than Prince frickin Lotor.  
  
Deep down, all he wanted was for his friends to be safe. But he failed to protect them as leader of Voltron and he failed to protect as a member of the Blade of Marmora. Now they had Lotor to do the protecting.  
  
And Lance probably thought Keith was an ass. Their gentle teasing had become something Keith didn’t know he would miss, and Lance never ceased to impress him on the battlefield. He had told Lance what an important member of the team he was, and then Keith went and left it for nothing but a stupid purple blade and some warped morals.  
  
The blade in his hand activated as his fist clenched in anger. The sword flew from his hand and sank into the wall at the far end of the room. Keith slid to the floor, landing in a crumpled heap. His fingers tore at his hair and his jaw clenched. He thought he knew what it was like to feel lost, living out in the desert alone, but this was entirely something else.  
  
“Keith?” A voice called cautiously. Keith ignored it. He wasn’t in the mood. Turning his back to the sound, he put up his hood and wished he could melt into the wall.  
  
“Keith, are you okay?” Lance entered the room. He looked at the sword embedded in the wall, emanating a soft purple color in the dark room. He placed his hands on the hilt to pull it from the wall, but his non Galra touch made it shrink back into the little knife he had grown accustomed to seeing on the belt of the boy he couldn’t stop thinking about.  
  
“Keith, Matt told me what happened-”  
  
“And you’ve come here to tell me how stupid that was. Thank you. I think I’ve heard that enough times today.” Keith threw a light punch at the wall, just hard enough to make his knuckles sting.  
  
“Keith, listen…” Lance began, crossing the space between them, but he was too shocked to continue when he saw the tear streaks on Keith’s face. Lance didn’t think Keith had even cried when Shiro was missing.  
  
Keith looked up at him. “I just… want to know if I was brave enough to actually go through with it.” The eye contact lasted too long for comfort so he turned away again.  
  
“I know you’re brave enough to do it, Keith. What I didn’t know was if you were brave enough _not_ to do it.” Lance squatted and put a hand on Keith’s shoulder. Keith flinched, but Lance kept his hand there to steady him. “I know you’ll just ignore me if I tell you not to do something like that ever again. You’ve always had issues with authority.” Lance chuckled, thinking back to their Garrison days when he’d catch Keith exiting the principal’s office as he was entering it.  
  
“But… what if I asked you?” Keith let his eyes fly to Lance’s face. “Please? For me?” Lance extended a hand, holding out the little knife.  
  
Keith found himself laughing in his misery. “Why? You don’t need me.” _All I’ve ever done is put you in danger. You don’t deserve this._ “Shiro’s back now and-”  
  
Lance’s eyes rolled as he stood back up. “You think this is about Voltron? Oh my god, Keith, you crack me up. ‘I don’t need you.’ Haha. Good one. So funny.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“Look at this!” Lance grabbed his sleeve and pulled it up. There was the little purple sword Keith had almost forgotten about. The shape was more familiar now than it had been outside that coffee shop over a year ago. It was the shape of the Marmoran Blade. “I do need you, Keith. More than anything.”  
  
“The coffee shop…” Keith whispered. He stood to face Lance, his heart beating faster than it had when he saw his Soul Mark on every store as a child, louder than it had that night at Joey’s Jo, and clearer than it had before he almost crashed his ship. His fingers clawed at the tight sleeve of his Marmora suit to reveal the _OPEN_ sign he hadn’t stopped thinking about since he first met Lance.  
  
Lance was laughing. “Since then, I decided that I really dig the mullet. With or without the funky, dorky, adorable jacket.” He knocked off the hood and ran his hands through Keith’s messy hair.  
  
“Well you can borrow the funky jacket whenever you’re cold and too stubborn to order a warm drink.” Keith could barely breathe.  
  
“Maybe I will.” The two leaned closer, letting their noses touch.  
  
“I… think I love you, Lance.”  
  
“I love you too, Mullet.”


End file.
